TrueCar Prepares Dealers for AI-Driven Changes in Car Buying

“I think [our] arrogance and disruption got us into trouble,” Scott Painter tells PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

It is a rare admission from a founder who spent nearly two decades insisting that the car-buying process was broken and that radical price transparency was the fix.

He was right about the diagnosis. But the fix, syndicating list prices to everyone, making dealers compete on a scoreboard they couldn’t control, turned price into what Painter now calls “a third rail.” Not because transparency failed consumers, but because the posture and timing alienated the very partners the marketplace needed to function.

The Reckoning

Painter founded TrueCar in 2005 and served as CEO until 2016. What followed was a long slide. The company that once commanded a public-market valuation in the billions was taken private by Painter in a $227 million buyout backed by PenFed, Zurich North America and AutoNation. He returned as CEO and immediately pared away side initiatives to refocus on the core marketplace.

That self-reflection matters, because TrueCar 2.0 is designed to preserve price discovery while avoiding the broadcast tactics that once inflamed dealers. Instead of syndicating list prices to everyone, Painter is moving toward one-to-one offers that allow retailers to align price and promotional offers to a specific buyer without surrendering margin across their entire book.

A Career Built Around One Problem

“I’ve spent my entire career trying to make buying and owning a car easier using technology,” Painter says, adding simply: “I love cars.”

For nearly three decades, his work has circled the same problem set: buyer intimidation, a frustrating time suck, and information asymmetry in one of the most consequential household purchases. He described his early days persuading investors that digital would simplify car buying as a little like pushing a big rock up a hill. Today, every automaker and dealer already goes to market digitally, and every shopper begins online.

But it’s the smartphone, he argues, that has and will continue to change the game. Painter sees the intersection of the smartphone, data and AI as a dynamic live bridge between buyer and seller.

Why Car Buying Is Still Broken

“Buying a car in 2026 is worse than it was in 2016,” Painter says, despite a decade of digital tooling.

He attributes that backwards slide to higher prices, tighter affordability and fragmented workflows. Average new-vehicle prices have climbed above $50,000, making financing unavoidable for most households, so used cars are of course the alternative. Consumers still struggle to surface a “real offer,” and financing often feels opaque.

Webster noted that she has purchased every car online and avoids dealerships altogether. Painter agrees with Webster that the pandemic proved the industry can deliver vehicles to the driveway. The question now is whether it can deliver confidence alongside convenience.

That confidence also hinges on avoiding bait-and-switch.

Dealers are legally required to advertise inventory with VINs, Painter explains, precisely to prevent phantom cars that lure shoppers onto lots. TrueCar’s reboot doubles down on transactional offers to reinforce that safeguard.

Relevance Over Reach

Painter is quick not to minimize the pressure that car dealers face. Floorplan costs rise with interest rates. Days-on-lot stretch when demand softens. Layer in tariff uncertainty and lingering supply distortions, and incentives to move inventory intensify.

“We are living through the largest discounting cycle in the automotive century,” he says.

TrueCar’s response is to help dealers locate the inflection point between velocity and margin. Painter cites examples where advertised prices sit roughly 6% to 7.5% below MSRP, while actual selling prices can fall materially further once individualized negotiations begin. The goal is to formalize that private discounting through app-based offers that protect gross on other buyers.

He also draws a distinction between his platform and vertically integrated retailers. “Carvana is about drive happy. TrueCar is about saving money,” Painter says.

He says that his conversion math makes the case. TrueCar leans on affinity channels such as USAA and PenFed Credit Union, intersecting shoppers when they apply for loans or insurance. Painter says open-market leads convert at roughly 2%, while affinity-sourced shoppers close closer to 40%, a delta he describes as “massive.”

The reason is practical: buying a car requires solving four problems at once: Purchase price, financing, insurance and trade-in. If any one of the four breaks, the customer defects. TrueCar does not take inventory, instead orchestrating those steps with dealer partners and lenders to keep transactions intact from first click to final signature.

When Captain Kirk Buys a Car

Painter has been forecasting this arc for years. Nearly two decades ago, he told automotive executives to imagine how Captain James T. Kirk would buy a car: Conversational AI, immersive test drives, instant financing and delivery without visiting a showroom.

What sounded speculative in 2005 is now arriving in pieces. Dealers already deploy AI to manage leads and CRM systems. Consumers increasingly use agents to comparison-shop everything from vacations to appliances. Car buying, he argues, will follow.

The most disruptive change will arrive in finance and insurance. Algorithms will expose the full menu of lender options and reorder them for consumer benefit, collapsing the asymmetry that once favored back-office waterfalls. Dealers will need new playbooks to protect front- and back-end gross in a world where customers see every alternative.

True Car’s True Test

The conversation with Webster closes with a reminder that technology alone will not carry the transition. Discipline and restraint matter as much as code.

“The only way that I’m going to know that TrueCar is on mission,” Painter says, “is if all of my employees and all of my team members say that they’re proud of the company.”

As for first principles: “The best way to save the most money on your next vehicle is to go to TrueCar. Period. End of story.”

Spoken like a true believer.